DC Council Game 17: Wizards 97 vs Warriors 101: Little Things Play a Huge Role

[D.C. Council: setting the scene, rating the starters, assessing the subs, providing the analysis, and catching anything that you may have missed. Unlike the real DC Council, everything here is on the table. Game No. 17, Washington Wizards vs Golden State Warriors; contributors: Rashad Mobley and Adam McGinnis from the Verizon Center, and Kyle Weidie from behind the T.V.]

Stat of the Game: After the win, Warriors Coach Mark Jackson said of his team, “We dominated the boards,” and he was not exaggerating. The Warriors grabbed 57 rebounds to just 37 for the Wizards. Forward David Lee led the way with 17 rebounds, while forwards Carl Landry (9) and Draymond Green (8) led the way off bench. The Wizards’ top rebounder was a guard (Jordan Crawford, 7), and Bradley Beal and Nene each chipped in six boards.

MVP: Coach Mark Jackson had this to say about guard Stephen Curry before the game:

Once the contest started, Curry went out and scored 22 points with five assists, despite shooting just 2-of-8 from the the 3-point line. But more important than any statistics he accrued, Curry did a masterful job at controlling the tempo — something John Wall was just learning to do before his injury this season. When the Warriors had numbers, Curry pushed the ball and found the right man in the open court. When the numbers weren’t there, Curry ran the offense, made the extra pass, and his teammates followed suit. And when Curry was called upon to show off his vintage shooting stroke, he hit big shots from the free throw line (where he made four in the last 15 seconds) and big shots from the field.

Now that’s a team with shooters.

With the game knotted up at 84-84, the Warriors went on a decisive 9-1 run, which led many home fans to stream toward the exits at 2:19 minute mark of the fourth quarter. During this key moment, Klay Thompson drilled an unreal corner 3-pointer when he hardly had control of the ball while shooting it.

Randy Wittman acknowledged the high degree of difficulty and significance of this Thompson 3-pointer in his post game press conference: “I thought Thomspon’s 3 with the clock running down in front of our bench … I don’t even think that he had it in his hand. He was kind of just throwing it up there to beat the shot clock, and it goes in.”

The Wizards made a valiant comeback effort in the final few minutes, but were never able to tie up the score again.

In the first and only four minutes A.J. Price was in the game, Stephen Curry went around him at will and scored five points. When Shaun Livingston jogged to the scorer’s table, my fellow Truth About It colleague Adam McGinnis thought Coach Randy Wittman was going to Plan B — as it turns out, Price was injured. Thus, he joins Trevor Booker, John Wall and Trevor Ariza in the growing MASH unit with a broken hand, and he’s expected to miss 4-to-6 weeks. Price declared himself “a quick healer” and vowed to be back sooner. I wonder what Ted Leonsis’ timetable will be.

‘Incomplete’ out of 3 stars

Bradley Beal tried his best to build upon an aggressive third quarter on Friday in Atlanta, but the production just didn’t add up in the end, although the effort statistics were somewhat admirable. Beal’s line: almost 40.5 minutes, 17 points (6-for-17 FGs, 1-for-6 3-pointers, 4-for-6 FTs), six rebounds, two steals, one block, one turnover, and two fouls. Just 17 games into his rookie year, it’s clear that Beal has a long way to go before he truly gets a feel for the NBA game, especially on offense. Also, I’ll continue to harp on the fact that his legs don’t always look like the legs of an NBA shooter. Determined to run a play all the way through, you’ll often see Beal caught in the air on a jump shot attempt coming off a screen (such as midway through the second quarter), but without enough lift to avoid being bothered by longer defenders. In this particular instance, the shot clanged off the rim. Early in the third, Beal missed a short jumper in the paint and hung his head — so, he’s also not always the guy who coaches lauded as a young player with an even-keeled demeanor. But that’s OK, Beal stuck with it. Late in the game, with Nene in a bind on offense, Beal darted into the lane, received a pass, and nailed the shot in the lane. With two seconds left, intentionally missing a free throw and then missing a point-blank shot to tie the game had to hurt for Beal. But hey, welcome to the 2-15 Wizards, rookie.

1.5 out of 3 stars

Many of the Wizards off season moves have not panned out, but the Martell Webster signing is one that the front office nailed. With injuries piling up at a ridiculous rate, the acquisition of Webster has become even more important to stabilize the small forward position. Webster finished the game with nine points, five rebounds, three assists, and two steals. He struggled with his shot (3-for-10 FGs, 1-for-5 3-pointers), and his playing time was cut into by Cartier Martin’s increased burn due to hot shooting. Webster’s big free throw miss with 16 seconds left in game also hindered the Wizards’ last minute heroics. But, as long as Webster continues to be an example of hustle, he should continue to receive playing time.

1.5 out of 3 stars

Chris Singleton made three of his first six shots in the first quarter, and then much like he did on Friday night in Atlanta, he disappeared. Coach Wittman is clearly giving Singleton an audition for the minutes that have been revoked from Jan Vesely, and for the second consecutive game, he did not sufficiently distinguish himself. There was, however, one exception. The Wizards were down 81-84 with 4:23 left in the fourth quarter when Singleton hit a 20-foot jumper, grabbed a rebound, and hit one of two free throws to tie the game — all in a nine second span. That missed free throw could have given then Wizards the lead, so again, Singleton didn’t quite distinguish himself when given the opportunity.

1 out of 3 stars

It’s only a matter of time until Emeka Okafor’s nights of 11.5 minutes, two points, zero rebounds, one steal, one turnover, and one foul are relegated to spot duty off the bench, right? Such efforts from the 30-year old, 9-year NBA vet will ultimately look better, or worse, off the bench. I know that doesn’t make an inkling of sense, but neither does the fact that Okafor will be making $13.5 million this season. Actually, here’s a fun game: Okafor has played in 17 games this season, how many times has his points plus rebounds exceeded 13.5? The answer is seven. Seven times Emeka Okafor has produced this equation: Points + Rebounds > Annual Salary in Millions … and that is just sad.

0 out of 3 stars

Jordan Crawford dazzled versus the Warriors, being a fantasy stud with 22 points, eight assists, seven rebounds, two steals, and only one turnover in 35 minutes. He filled in admirably for A.J. Price at the point by leading the Wizards in scoring, assists and rebounds. Detractors of Crawford’s game should recognize how much he has improved this season, along with his tremendous strides in becoming a more efficient player. It appears the lingering, unfair ball-hog criticism still perturbs Crawford, and could be affecting his late game decision-making.

The Wizards were down three with 30 seconds remaining and Crawford had the ball in his hands at the top of key. He had made four straight 3-pointers, two in the previous two possessions, so if there was ever a time for a J-Craw heat check, step-back bomb, this was it. However, he passed up a shot, threw it to Martell Webster in the corner, who drove the baseline, got away with a charge and only converted one of his two free throw attempts. I asked a very somber Crawford about his thought process in passing up a game-tying shot when he had the hot hand. His answer illuminated his frustration: “Are you surprised?”

I replied that I thought maybe he would shoot it again. Crawford: “Then y’all would have been saying why did I shoot it.” Let’s watch…

I disagree with Crawford’s takeaway, but I do see the roots of his logic in how fans and media promote double standards with certain players. You are either the hero or goat, with little room in between. There are many causes for Washington’s 2-15 start, the play of Jordan Crawford is not one of them, and many followers of this team should start appreciating his skill set more. And yes, Jordan, I would have loved for you to have shot it again.

2.5 out of 3 stars

During the Opening Statements segment before the game, Jordan Ramirez, of the ESPN True Hoop Blog, Warriors World, mentioned that the Warriors were susceptible to giving up big games to unsung players. Cartier Martin could not sustain his shooting brilliance for an entire game (he didn’t score in any other quarer), but during the second period he was unsung player who haunted the Warriors, a former team of Martin’s. In 12 second quarter minutes, Marten went 5-of-6 from the field, 2-of-3 behind the arc and a perfect 2-of-2 from the free throw line. Martin’s biggest impact came during the last 1:57 of the second when the Wizards were down, 37-45, and he scored eight points and grabbed two rebounds to cut the Warriors lead to 50-47. The Wizards could have used that hot shooting again in the fourth, but Martin could not recreate that mojo.

2 out of 3 stars

#WittmanFace never stops.

For his post game press conference, Randy Wittman walked slowly in and gazed down at the game’s final stat sheet for about 15 seconds. When he finally looked up, there was an incredulous look of disbelief regarding how his team found another way to lose a close contest. Wittman’s Wizards were pounded on the boards 57-to-37 and missed nine free throws, the areas mostly responsible for thwarting a chance to pull out victory number three. The coach likes to say, “no one in the NBA is going to feel sorry you,” about his team’s obstacles, but it is hard to not have some compassion for Wittman, as he began the campaign without his two best players.

The undermanned Wizards continue to battle and lose an extraordinary number of tight ball games. Along with Wall, two other starters have fallen due to injury, Trevor Ariza and Trevor Booker. Nene’s minutes are still limited. Last season’s lottery pick, Jan Vesely, has been so bad that he has been justifiably buried on the bench. Okafor, the high-paid veteran center brought into control the paint, did not have one rebound against Golden State. And now the temporary starting PG, Price, is out with a fractured hand. Wittman is correct in saying that future opponents do not care about Washington’s depleted squad, but there still needs to be some context regarding the environment when evaluating Wittman’s head coaching performance.

Post-Game Chatter.

Kyle founded TAI in 2007 and has been weaving in and out the world of Wizards ever since, ducking WittmanFaces, jumping over G-Wiz, and avoiding stints on the DNP-Conditioning list. He has covered the Washington pro basketball team as a member of the media since 2009. Kyle lives in D.C. with his wife, loves basketball, and has no pets.

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Truth About It.net, Washington Wizards Blog, ESPN TrueHoop Network -- Following the D.C. pro basketball franchise since the 90s and covering them in blog form since 2007 -- Opinion, Analysis, Irreverence, Pictures, Video, Interviews, Photoshops, News, Video, Quotes, Shares, and all the pixels about the Washington Wizards you can imagine.